CHAPTER 7 LEARNER- ON- LEARNER VIOLENCE
7.2 Fights 159
7.2.5 Responses of stakeholders to fights 169
The principal of THS described the procedures that were taken to address fights among learners at THS:
They fight each other as I said. If they fight we call their parents to the school.
We send parents letters and invite them to come to the school. We record these incidents. We have a disciplinary and safety committee. This committee manages these kinds of situations where learners fight each other and disturb teaching and learning (PTesco).
At THS I observed that members of the disciplinary committee were responsible for tackling learners’ reported misbehaviour in general and fights in particular. When the cases were reported, any available members of disciplinary committee attended to the matter immediately. The concerned learners would be called to a vacant office where the members of disciplinary committee met.
A HoD from the same school reported that some teachers failed to perform their leadership and management roles in the classrooms due to fear of violence. As a result, fights between learners which could have been prevented occurred in the classroom in the presence of such teachers:
In some cases which were reported to management we found that learners fought, but then that could have been stopped at a low level even before this issue could
move to the level of fighting. When we engaged the learners, they openly said this happened in front of the teacher and the teacher did nothing. It is in situations like this where I said to you, the fear from the teacher wherein some incidents of violence could have stopped at a level of insults before they become a fight. As I indicated teachers sometimes are scared of taking their responsibilities. They are scared because of experience and the history of this school. This school has a history of a learner who stabbed and killed a teacher (HTersee 2).
When asked how the disciplinary committee tackled fights among learners a teacher who was a member of this committee at THS had this to say:
We call in the learners. If two learners fought, they both receive letters addressed to their parents inviting them to come to school. When they come back with their parents, there is a disciplinary hearing. We listen to the story of each of the learners involved in the fight. We then suspend them. They write down a declaration. They declare that they will not be found in any kind of misconduct, otherwise great measures will be taken against them and that would be expulsion.
We see that this does help. It helps in the decline of violence. The disciplinary committee does not expel anybody. If a learner repeats misconduct, we hand over the case to the SGB. The SGB with the learners’ component, the RCL, teachers’
component, parents’ component come together and actually decide on the verdict as to what needs to be done to this learner. If they say learners must be expelled, they are expelled. The other learners seeing that some learners got expelled, the behaviour of the remaining learners does change. They become aware that there is a price to pay if they are not following the conduct of the school (TTurner 6).
The principal of MHS spoke about the ways in which fights among learners at MHS were tackled:
In cases where learners fight we call the concerned learners to the office and ask their parents to come to the school. If it is a serious case of violence they are immediately suspended pending hearing. After disciplinary hearing they may be expelled from the school. In certain cases we encourage the parents to take a transfer to another school other than taking the expulsion route. In most cases the
parents take the advice to transfer their children to other schools. These cases are handled by me or members of disciplinary committee. We still need to strengthen this committee because it has only two members (PMaster).
One teacher from MHS narrated how she tackled an incident of a fight between two learners which happened in the classroom during her presence:
I sent them to the office where the deputy principal contacted their parents because it is against the school’s Code of Conduct to be involved in any form of physical fight; again because the boy hit the girl quite badly. So his mother was called in and he was reprimanded for that. However, he was not suspended because he said he was very sorry. In the classroom he was punished by me. I made him sweep the classroom for a week. This learner I’m talking about is a problem. So his father has abandoned him and that type of a thing. So he has got issues. With him it is a daily conversation, giving moral lessons and values. There have been some improvements (HMediator 4).
The findings suggest that some learners in the two cases resolved misunderstandings by engaging in fights. In a way, the schools were sometimes turned into battle fields where the fittest survived. Some girls and boys were players in this field. However, the fights among boys were found to be rougher than those among girls. This study found that fights occurred more among THS boys than girls while in MHS fights were more common among girls than boys. The learners were exposed to violence that occurred in the community around the school. Some of those learners tended to be violent (Burton, 2008).
The violent nature of fights among learners scared some teachers to the extent that such teachers did not attempt to stop learners from fighting. The media seem to influence learners to engage in fights (Bandura, 1977) and to encourage other learners to fight (Doig, 2005). The media portrays fights in a glorified manner meant to entertain people.
The learners in the two participant schools appeared to view fights among learners entertaining just like what they see on television. The media exposes the violent nature of South African society to learners. On a daily basis, learners learn about people who fought in particular and those who engaged in other violent activities in general. It was,
therefore, likely that learners construed fighting as one of the ways to use in solving conflicts or differences of opinion.
The findings also suggest that learners who fought in the two schools were rewarded by other learners or onlookers who cheered them on. In a way fighters who won or dominated the fight were directly motivated through direct reinforcement from their peers (Eysenck, 2003). This motivation was likely to influence some fighters and the onlookers to be violent. Some fighters might fight again when confronted by a similar situation since they were previously rewarded for fighting. In the same way, some of the onlookers might resort to fighting as a way of resolving differences because they observed some learners receiving approval for fighting from their peers. From the distributed leadership perspective, leadership emanates from multiple sources (Spillane, 2005) such as principals, teachers and learners. Spillane and Diamond (2007) note that distributed leadership may be exercised through collaborated distribution where multiple leaders work together in pursuit of a common objective. However, there was dearth of leadership among learners in the two participant schools. The learners who witnessed others fighting did not attempt to exercise leadership by encouraging or persuading the fighters to stop the fight.
It also seemed that sometimes fights occurred at classroom level due to lack of sound leadership and management on the side of some teachers at THS. Such teachers did not attempt to inspire and motivate learners to avoid fighting and resolve issues in a peaceful manner. At school level, the disciplinary committee at THS attempted to resolve cases of fights among learners. This committee consisted of ordinary teachers and the principal. As a result, teachers without designated positions as well as the principal with a designated position had an opportunity to manage or influence learners’
behaviour with regard to fights. This was consistent with distributed leadership principles which suggest that leadership in a school is carried out by formally appointed leaders as well as those without formal leadership positions. On the contrary, the disciplinary committee at MHS was made up of one HoD and a deputy principal. In this way, the management of learners’ misbehaviour and fights in particular was left in the hands of managers with a formally designated position; thus suggesting that leadership and management in this school could only be carried out by formally appointed leaders.
However, it appeared that the committees in the two schools only adopted such
measures as suspension of learners from the school in an effort to maintain discipline among learners. The members of the committee seemed to be unaware that as leaders they could exert influence on learners so that such learners could understand that fighting was not a good option for solving problems.